Fire on Minnesota Renaissance Festival grounds destroys several structures
Fire destroyed several structures Thursday evening on the grounds of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, but officials say they expect to open on schedule later this summer.
The Shakopee Fire Department says they were called to the festival grounds at about 6 p.m. and arrived to find five connected structures fully engulfed. Crews had difficulties containing the flames due to a lack of water supply in the area.
"The festival grounds are not connected to a municipal water system, requiring water tenders to shuttle water from hydrants nearly eight minutes away," officials said.
It took crews from about a dozen fire departments a couple of hours to put out the fire, which festival officials say destroyed seven buildings, including "retail shops and food vendors." The facades of some other nearby booths were also damaged. Investigators are still determining the full extent of the damage.
A Shakopee firefighter was hurt when officials say they were hit by a fire hose, but they were treated at the scene and "quickly returned to duty."
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival says no one else was injured.
Officials say the response effort was also hampered by the lack of lighting, "minimally maintained gravel roads, recent rainfall and challenging terrain."
In a statement released on Friday morning, Stephanie Whipps, executive director of Mid-America Festivals, thanked the area fire departments that converged to help contain the damage and extinguish the flames.
"The Minnesota Renaissance Festival community is resilient, and we will work to rebuild and bring back the magic as soon as possible," Whipps said.
Nerdyfae, formerly known as Doo's Wingalings, is one of the artisan shops believed to be among the businesses damaged. The shop took to Facebook to thank everyone for the outpouring of support.
"We have heard that our booth was probably drastically damaged in the fire along with the booths of many of our neighbors. We are waiting for news from the festival for how to proceed and assess the damage," the shop said.
The Minnesota State Fire Marshal's Office is assisting with the investigation.
The festival, scheduled to run on weekends from Aug. 16 through Sept. 28, celebrates 54 years this summer. It's grown to be the largest ren fest in the country, with 300,000 people visiting the grounds each year.
On opening day, the magic-comedy duo Penn & Teller, whose first-ever performance together was at the festival in 1975, will return for a special 50th anniversary show.
In St. Paul, a church steeple caught on fire about 30 minutes before the festival fire was reported, and investigators suspect lightning in that case.
